It should tell you something about this country’s politics that the three most likely destinations for people with mental problems are the nuthouse, the big house and the statehouse. Russell “Scott” Walker is trying for the latter, but he’ll have to do it with no help from the state GOP, which took the unprecedented step of disavowing his candidacy. This answers the question, “How bonkers does someone have to be to get spurned by the GOP?” but also raises the question, “How do we get Walker the mental-health help he so obviously needs?”
Think Progress uses Gov. Carney’s signing ceremony of laws to ban drilling for petrochemicals off Delaware’s coast to attack the “drill, baby, drill” philosophy of Republicans. They tout the bipartisan nature of the opposition and give a shout-out to Ernie Lopez.
Republicans love to attack government subsidies for alternative energy, but they never question the subsidies for petrochemical extraction, foremost of which is the U.S. defense budget, which spends tens of billions per year to protect the oil supply. Defending America’s sunshine and wind would, of course, cost nothing.
What does it take for hard-core conservatives to understand what assholes they are? A stretch in the federal sneezer, apparently. Politico’s weekly magazine this week features a story, alternately infuriating and heartbreaking, about an Tea Party phenom in Iowa who got convicted of selling his endorsement in the 2012 caucuses and lying about it. Just 15 months in the federal joint opened Kent Sorenson’s eyes to the injustices of the penal system, which are even more disgusting that the greedfest surrounding the Iowa presidential caucuses. Both get a thorough drubbing in this outstanding long read.
Finally, from the Everything Trump Touches Turns to Shit file, a 17-unit hoagie shop chain headquartered in Washington announced it’s shuttering all its stores because sales plummeted 40 percent in the year since its co-owner was photographed at Trump’s small business roundtable. Has any American president ever been this unpopular?